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Bioluminance
H28"W14"L"14 Bioplastic | Maple
Collaberation with Guillermo Thompson
This sculpture is inspired by our concern for the excessive use of plastic bags. Its shape is intended to embody abstracted forms found in nature and was created by recycling a material normally disregarded and combining it with a renewable resource.
Plastic bags are generally used once, thrown away and only a minute percent is recycled. Bags are found disrupting landfills because they do not decompose over time. We combined a newly researched renewable material with something that is commonly found in landfills.
Bio-plastic is created by combining several renewable biomass sources such as glycerin and cornstarch. By combining these materials with water, an acetic acid like vinegar and heating to right temperature, plastic can be formed when dried. The great benefit of this material is that will always decompose during a shorter period of time. A blue dye was added to the mixture to enhance the interaction between the light and the plastic. The light used is a light-emitting diode (LED) which is several times more efficient than the common incandescent and fluorescent bulbs.
This sculpture represents a point in transition towards the use of more biodegradable products and the benefits that these practices can generate globally.